John Bellamy Foster: Financial crisis, imperialism and environment — `Socialism is humanity’s best chance’ On September 17, 2009, John Bellamy Foster appeared on Democracy Now! to discuss the financial meltdown, social change and democracy. A conversation with John Bellamy Foster, editor of the US-based socialist magazine Monthly Review, professor of sociology at the University of […]

Tougher action is needed to rein in executive salaries and bonuses: unions What is not debated is the reality that our rulers…whether fat-cat corporate CEO’s or Cabinet Ministers and MPs and senior Bureaucrats and the judiciary… all operate in their own exclusive salary fixing system that they deny to their workforce. So those workers who […]

In this concluding section, I deal with lines of argument from those opposed to the right to strike. See below for references. Is the right to strike an historical anachronism or has it contemporary relevance? 1 ˜Firewalling the right to strike is too much” is one employer line Skilled industrial relations advocates settle collective bargaining […]

I add an observation on the political debate.Orwellian 1984 labour laws Many unionists regarded labour law under WorkChoices was an Orwellian 1984 workplace world, where opposites of what politicians said apply. ˜Doublethink™ was one 1984 device. ˜Doublethink is the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. ˜Doublethink […]

FIREWALLING THE RIGHT TO STRIKE IN AUSTRALIA? I wrote this on July 1 and have decided to post it in sections. Introduction I argue for the repeal of Australia’s penal powers against strikes. I advocate the firewall right to strike. The Australian Labor government’s Fair Work Act, in force July 1st 2009, retains the same […]

Specific issues on the right to strike 1 Remove the protected action/unprotected action dichotomy One historical problem is the structure of the industrial relations regime, here the â€˜protected/unprotected actionâ€™ dichotomy. Industrial relations participants and unions have been forced to accept the structure of the labour law responding to industrial action to be within the legal […]

Further restrictions by Rudd on the right to strike remain unfair The Fair Work Act 2009 retains most of these (see my Evatt papers in the references): The issue of the legally restrictive and narrow ˜matters pertaining to the employment relationship” doctrine. I discuss this below as it is retained in the Fair Work Act. […]

If workers in a democracy are not able to withdraw our labour power without being ordered back to work we are not free. Workers remain “wage slaves” to whatever the employer or the state wants. Penal powers (other than losing pay for time lost) ought not be available to employers, An alternative workplace policy is […]